I hear you on the maintenance thing. I bought my place last year and the inspector said the furnace was “ancient but spotless”—guess the previous owne...

Honestly, that's exactly what I ended up doing with mine. Had the keypad installed on a side door that catches rain runoff, and after one winter of de...

Nice job pulling that off—I haven't tackled earthquake-proofing yet, but sounds like a huge win. And yeah, totally relate to the radiant floor thing, ...

Yeah, I've run into inspectors who weren't exactly chatty. When I was doing my first renovation—a bathroom update—I figured I'd just call the inspecto...

We switched ours out last summer for the exact same reason—our old opener sounded like someone shaking a toolbox full of bolts every time we hit the b...

Yeah, rebates can definitely feel like navigating a maze sometimes. I ran into similar issues last year when I replaced my windows—thought I'd be clev...

Corsican mint sounds interesting, hadn't thought of that one. I've been using creeping thyme around my stepping stones, and it's been okay-ish, but de...

Juniper's tough stuff for sure, but deer can definitely be a headache. Had a similar issue myself when I first planted junipers—thought they'd leave t...

I learned about keeping digital copies the hard way too—thought I was all set after installing a new energy-efficient water heater, and then realized ...

Ha, been there too. Auctions can seriously mess with your head... I once ended up paying double my budget for a clawfoot tub because some guy across t...

We redid our master bath last year and went with regular grout, but even then, I still ended up having some issues. About eight months in, I noticed a...